


a single heartbeat between your two

by mollivanders



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Undercover, Undercover as a Couple
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-13
Updated: 2017-04-13
Packaged: 2018-10-18 08:39:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10613262
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mollivanders/pseuds/mollivanders
Summary: He steps closer to Jyn, brushing a loose strand of hair from her face.(As always, there was nowhere else to go.)“Hi,” he says softly, and the voices outside key in the code. Her eyes flick up to meet his and a smile plays at her lips. “Hi,” she echoes.When he kisses her this time, he kisses her like it’s the last chance he’ll ever get. His hands wrap around her waist and she slides herself against him, her hands steady and warm on his chest. Her fingers curl in anticipation as he kisses her openly, as intently and with as much emotion as he can convey.(For a brief instant, he thinks she is trying to tell him something too.)





	

**Author's Note:**

> Jyn keeps kissing Cassian for cover. He'll take what he can get.
> 
> I was determined to write something for RebelCaptain Appreciation Week Day 3 - Undercover and wrote most of this by hand on planes. Apparently this is something I do now.

The first time it happens, they’re casing a back alley entrance to an Imperial compound. The High Council had word that the Empire was massing resources for a major initiative under the Emperor’s Jedi and Draven had sent them to Coruscant for details. Their cover as merchants had gotten them through the planet’s security, but it wouldn’t do to be caught sneaking into the facility.

He’s hoisting her up to a window, her quick fingers jimmying it open, when he hears the thump of approaching stormtrooper boots.

“Quick!” he hisses, his muscles starting to shudder from the angle, and Jyn curses under her breath. “It’s stuck,” she whispers back. “I need another minute.”

They don’t have a minute. But as he slides her down, casting about for a place to hide, she turns to face him. He catches the nervous energy about her as she glances at the mouth of the alley.

“What?” he asks, adrenaline pounding at him, before she pulls him down to her, a hasty _kiss me_ escaping her a moment before the ‘troopers round the corner.

(He doesn’t think, just follows her lead.)

The moment her lips touch his, his mind goes blank. He shifts against her, the angle uncooperative, and on instinct lifts her, his hands braced under her legs. A soft squeak escapes her mouth before she leans into him, settling her hands on his face. He’s honestly not sure what’s happening as he kisses her deeper, her ankles linked around his hips and her tongue soft and sweet in his mouth.

(He doesn’t really give a damn.)

Distantly, he hears the stormtroopers march by, writing them off as drunks on the town. She breaks the kiss in a sharp release and he drops her shakily, trying to clear his mind.

“I can get back up there,” she mutters, a pink flush dusting her cheeks, and turns back to the wall. “I almost had it.”

As he helps her back up, he wonders just _what_ the hell happened.

+

The next time it happens, they’re escaping from a stormtrooper patrol they had run into while avoiding _another_ stormtrooper patrol.

(The mission was not going well.)

When Cassian is almost sure they’ve blended into the mix of random pedestrians and civilians going about their day, Jyn pulls him into a club, instantly overwhelming his senses with a hundred perfumes and the liquors . He pinches the bridge of his nose, staving off a headache, and reaches for her hand.

“Did they see us?” he asks, leaning down by her ear. She is warm next to him, panting with unspent violence.

“I don’t know,” she says, trying to raise her voice above the crowd, “I thought maybe –”

Two stormtroopers enter the club and they duck down into the throng, Jyn muttering a curse he doesn’t recognize. She makes a beeline for the rear exit but Cassian shakes his head at her, mouthing an explanation. If the ‘troopers saw them go into the club, there might be more in the back. No way to tell if they were walking into a fight. 

_We could fight our way out_ , she mouths and her hand tightens in his.

 _Blend in_ , he mouths back and gestures to the exit. _Go easy_.

They stumble to the back as the stormtroopers walk among the disturbed patrons. It was starting to seem less likely that they had actually been spotted and more like the ‘troopers were just checking a possible location. Still, if the stormtroopers saw them –

By the exit, Jyn steps against the wall and pulls him towards her, fisting his jacket. When she nervously licks her lips, he follows her cue.

As the stormtroopers walk past them, he leans forward, one hand braced on the wall behind her, and kisses her. She hums softly, pulling him flush against her, and dimly he wonders just how real this all is.

(It doesn’t matter, he decides. He’ll take whatever she’ll give.)

His free hand settles on her hip to brush at her exposed skin and she jerks under his touch. A smile crosses into his kiss before she digs her hands tighter into his clothes and trails a kiss down his jaw to suckle at his throat.

 _Cover, cover, cover._ The stormtroopers have to be gone. They have to have. Nobody is bothering them at all.

(It doesn’t matter.)

Her name falls from his lips as he bucks against her, a heat rising in his chest. She stands on her toes to pull him back down into a kiss that she draws out, her lips sweet and inviting under his own. Without thinking, he steps closer, sliding his knee between her legs.

They both freeze in the same instant, eyes snapping open as they take each other in.

It’s almost painful when she drops her arms from around his neck but he steps back to give her space, trying to catching his breath. “I think they’re gone,” she says, her voice rough, and guilty pleasure rises within him.

“Yeah,” he agrees, taking another step back and looking around the club to confirm it’s empty of ‘troopers. He shakes his head, trying to clear it, and pushes the exit open. “Clear,” he says, and feels her step close behind him. “Let’s get back to the ship.”

They don’t speak the rest of the way back.

+

They’re striding down a market street when he swears softly, seeing familiar faces in the crowd ahead of them.

“What is it?” she asks, looking around them in confusion as he turns them around in a fluid motion. “I don’t see anything.”

“Old friends,” he says, glancing at her. “Not _friends_ , really.” Her expression shifts in understanding and he adds, “friends who would turn us into the Empire as soon as look at us.”

“Did they see us?” she asks, her voice steady and calm. She’s matching his pace, an uneasy feat given their height difference, and he slows a fraction as she steals a look behind them. “Are they two big guys in black and green?”

He swears softly again and she nods with the force of a decision. “Alright then,” she says, and pulls them behind a vendor stall. Using precious seconds, she rummages through her pack and pulls out a flash grenade. “Cover your ears,” she warns, before priming the grenade and tossing it into the air.

It goes off with a bang, and then they’re running. They beat a quick escape down narrow streets but they’re not heading to the ship. The mission isn’t over, old friends or no. As people swarm around them, yelling in confusion, they duck down a smaller street the chaos hasn’t reached yet. People linger over café tables and look up in confusion at the sounds from the marketplace. He spots an entry alcove and pulls her into it, shrugging off his distinctive blue coat and throwing it at their feet.

“I see them,” Jyn says, and this time, he’s ready for her.

(The kiss obscures them, nothing more than two lovers out for an afternoon, oblivious to the world around them.)

But he can feel her heart pounding as she pulls him closer, a desperate note to her breaths, and he breaks the kiss to check on her. Instead, she pulls him back, her eyes going dark, and leans them further back into the alcove.

When the street clears behind them, they step out of the alcove, subtly straightening their clothes.

“Are you okay?” he asks, his voice smaller than he expected, and tries harder to hide the longing there. “Should we talk about this?”

“Talk about what?” she asks brusquely, grabbing her pack and leading the way. “We’re going to be late,” she adds, casting a look over her shoulder, and he looks past the flush in her cheeks to the guarded look in her eyes.

(He drops it.)

+

When she steps out of the ‘fresher, he does a double take. She looks nothing like herself except for the nerves she’s clenching into fists.

“Does it look alright?” she asks, tugging at the steel-blue gown. “Kay made me change my hair.”

“It looks perfect,” K2 says from behind Cassian, bracing a metal arm on the upper bulkhead. “If you would just stop touching it.” The droid swivels golden eyes onto Cassian. “She is never going to pass for an Imperial wife.”

“She’ll be fine, Kay,” Cassian snaps, and then adds with more calm in his voice, looking at Jyn, “you’ll be fine.”

But later, when they are making small talk with a junior science officer and his wife, the real challenge arises.

“How long have you two been married?” the woman asks, gesturing at their marriage bands. Jyn gives the woman a sickly sweet smile but he can almost taste the tension coming off her in waves. Imperial science officers are the reason she is here, but they are also the reason she is jumping out of her skin.

“About a month,” Jyn giggles breathily and tugs at her dress again. He needs to get her away from this couple. They’ve already proven themselves to be useless and they’re seeing straight through their cover. “Still newlyweds.”

“Hmm,” the officer muses. “You don’t seem it. When we married,” he adds, looking at his wife, “we couldn’t keep our hands to ourselves.”

Just as Cassian is thanking the galaxy for _that_ visual, Jyn links her arm with his and smiles, trying to reclaim some of her cool exterior. “Absolutely, sir,” he says. “In the right company.” 

He rests his hand over hers and brushes his thumb against her skin in a subtle attempt to calm her, and her breathing evens out a fraction. The officer’s wife frowns, about to speak, and he interrupts her in a casually desperate attempt to defuse the situation.

“Thirsty?” he asks Jyn, looking down at her. She nods, meeting his gaze, and he seizes the moment. He needs to salvage their cover.

They need to get out of here.

Quickly, casually, as though they have done this a thousand times, he dips down to steal a kiss from her, his lips brushing gently against hers. 

(He would do this a thousand times, if she asked.)

It’s over in a moment, sweet in its brevity, but Jyn lingers a moment after he’s broken the kiss, eyes heavily lidded, and the officer chuckles with amusement.

“Oh yes,” his wife says, saluting Cassian with her half-empty glass. “Now I see it.”

(He can’t be sure, but he thinks there is an extra ferocity to how Jyn handles the stormtroopers later.)

+

They managed to sneak onto an Imperial base, override the lock on the base’s archive room, and plug K2 in without problems. It’s when they’re getting ready to _leave_ that something goes wrong.

He hears the muffled voices outside the door and luckily, he and Jyn have a reliable way to get out of these situations. Unluckily, K2 is not on board.

“This is not an optimal strategy,” K2 says to Cassian, ignoring Jyn as the clearly delusional member of this mission. She shrugs and hops on top of the records cabinet, her knees hitting the edges. “There is a forty-one percent chance –”

“Power down, Kay,” Cassian says and the droid glares only a moment long before complying. He steps closer to Jyn, brushing a loose strand of hair from her face.

(As always, there was nowhere else to go.)

“Hi,” he says softly, and the voices outside key in the code. Her eyes flick up to meet his and a smile plays at her lips. “Hi,” she echoes.

When he kisses her this time, he kisses her like it’s the last chance he’ll ever get. His hands wrap around her waist and she slides herself against him, her hands steady and warm on his chest. Her fingers curl in anticipation as he kisses her openly, as intently and with as much emotion as he can convey.

(For a brief instant, he thinks she is trying to tell him something too.)

The lieutenant who interrupts them yelps in shock at the sight of them, and then goes pale when they turn, displaying their forged ranks.

“Captain,” he stutters, retreating backwards to the door and Jyn muffles a snicker behind Cassian. “Please don’t –” the lieutenant says, looking up at the ceiling, “I won’t say – I’ll just – ”

In the quiet of his exit, Jyn shrugs at Cassian. “Could have gone worse,” she says and he nods, burying everything he wants to tell her once more. “As you were, Captain,” he says, and recklessly tucks her hair back into place again.

Later, he catches a glimpse of her pressing her fingers to her lips and his heart clenches.

(Not buried so well, then.)

+

“Heard you guys kissed on your last mission,” Bodhi says cheerily one morning, setting down his breakfast tray, and then freezes at the sight of Jyn. Her spoon clatters from her hand to the table and she looks at Cassian with betrayed horror. He’s frozen, trying to shake his head at her and play it off to Bodhi at the same time.

It doesn’t work.

“Is that…bad?” Bodhi asks and Chirrut snorts next to him before Baze elbows him into silence. “Where did you hear that?” Cassian asks evenly and Bodhi shrugs. “Draven made your last mission report available to Rogue Squadron. Said it had important intel about the base location.”

Next to him, Jyn turns red and stands suddenly, surprising them all as she disappears. Bodhi stares at Cassian.

“What _happened_?” Bodhi asks, gaping at Cassian, before Baze answers for them both. “It is private. Draven should have warned them.” Cassian stares at Baze before burying his face in his hands. “K2,” he mutters. “K2 always makes additions to my reports.” He springs up in an echo of Jyn, a sudden need coursing through him. “I have to find her.”

He looks for her all day, anxiously making time between mission prep and briefings. He’d told her he was leaving for a week on another mission and suddenly he was terrified that she wouldn’t be here when he got back. The terror settles in his chest, a dull weight that makes the seconds tick faster on his chrono, and he braces himself for leaving this unsettled. He needs to focus, and Jyn – 

(He can’t finish that thought.)

As K2 fires up the U-wing, he takes one last look across the hangar in resignation. Just when he turns to the ship, he hears her call out for him, a cry that mirrors his current state. He whirls on his heel and almost catches her as she races toward him, but she pulls herself short, only grabbing at his hands.

“You’re leaving,” she states, taking in the ship and breathing hard. “How long?”

He bites his lip, her fingers linking with his. “A week. Maybe. You never know.”

She nods. “Yeah. I know.” The ship’s lights flash behind him, a call to arms, but K2 can wait just one moment. “When you get back,” she says, nerves dancing in her eyes, “maybe we should have that talk?”

He smiles suddenly, whole and bright. “We should talk,” he agrees, and gestures with his head back to the ship. “K2,” he says quickly. “K2 added it. I had no idea.” She nods and squeezes his hands in hers. “I know,” she says and then, as though she is bracing herself to take a great leap, stands on her toes to kiss him.

(A soft brush of her lips against his, a promise of more to come.)

“Come back safe,” she murmurs against his lips when she breaks away and he nods, eyes still closed, broken and put back together in a moment. “Will you be here?” he asks and she nods, stepping away.

(It lingers with him all the way home.)

_Finis_

**Author's Note:**

> I am [ladytharen](ladytharen.tumblr.com/) on Tumblr if you want to say hi!


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